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Thaw in frozen relationship set to take time

PETER LLOYD: Well observers are warning that it will take time for the US and Iran to patch up their differences from nuclear ambitions to the recognition of Israel's right to exist.

And on that score, president Rouhani continues to build small bridges with rhetorical gestures.

This morning he told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that he acknowledges the holocaust happened, and was a great crime against Jews by the Nazis.

In the context of Iran, such a self-evident statement is the sort of reassurance that hardliners in both Israel and the US need to hear.

Still, there's plenty of hard work ahead for both the Americans and Iranian negotiators.

Iranian-born Reza Marashi is the director of research at the National Iranian American Council.

He spent four years in the U.S State Department.

Mr Marashi is frequently consulted by Western governments on Iran.

REZA MARASHI: Ironically I think Obama's speech and Rohani's speech had quite a few similarities. The similarity that stood out to me the most was that they were both trying to give something for everyone.

PETER LLOYD: How much can you believe of what he's said though? Today, Rouhani said nuclear weapons and WMD have no place in Iran's security and defence doctrine.

REZA MARASHI: That's an excellent question. And here's where we go back to Ronald Regan's old phrase - trust but verify. I don't think any politician, whether they're from Iran or the United States or anywhere in between, should be taken at face value when they say something.

Their words should be put to the test. They should back their words with concrete actions.

PETER LLOYD: Indeed, people like John Bolton, the old right-winger from the Bush days, said today that he's simply lying.

REZA MARASHI: Well, you know, it's easy to sit in the peanut gallery and throw stones at the glass house. John Bolton was a US official and had his opportunity to try to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis. And frankly, it didn't work.

And diplomacy is a marathon, not a sprint. Much to the chagrin of people like John Bolton.

PETER LLOYD: Right. Now, tell me some more about president Hassan Rouhani's credentials. Is he the moderate that the moderate Americans do dream of?

REZA MARASHI: I think the definition of moderate in Iranian politics is quite different than the definition of moderate in American politics. Within the Iranian political spectrum, is he more moderate than say, Mr Ahmadinejad or the supreme guide Ali Khamenei? Yes. But does that mean that he is a reformist like the former president Khatami? No. He's probably somewhere in between. So maybe centrist or relative moderate would be a more accurate term to describe Rouhani.

But what we do know about him is his track record. And ten years ago when he was the lead negotiator in Iran's nuclear negotiations with the EU, he pushed very hard for a deal. He has a track record of pushing to repair the relationship with the United States, put verifiable limitations on Iran's nuclear program.

These are the things that the west say that they want. And their former western politicians, diplomats coming out and saying this is a guy that we can do business with, we should give it a shot. And so I think that's promising.

But again, it's going to be a marathon, not a sprint, at the negotiating table.

PETER LLOYD: A somewhat different story is told by the Republicans in the United States today, whose support is probably vital in Congress for any sort of deal to be meaningful with the Iranians. One of them - Rudy Giuliani for example - he said that Rouhani has blood on his hands over the deaths of Jews in terror attacks, and indeed US servicemen as well. What's he talking about?

REZA MARASHI: I assume he's accusing the Iranian president of being a part of the decision making process when the decision was made to blow up a Jewish community centre in Argentina in the nineties. And then he also was accusing Rouhani of being a part of the decision making process in Iran when the American marine barracks were blown up in Lebanon.

PETER LLOYD: Any direct evidence that Rouhani was involved in that?

REZA MARASHI: If that evidence exists, I've not seen it presented. And the chief prosecutor in Argentina came out and said that in fact Rouhani was not part of the Iranian decision making process at that time.

I'm not sure about the marine barracks but the burden of proof is on these people to demonstrate if he was in fact a part of it. And if he was, it should be condemned. But if he's not, then what it really is, is extremists in the American political scene trying to torpedo the diplomatic process before it can really get off the ground.

I think everybody needs to take a step back and realise that the real magic happens behind the scenes, behind closed doors, privately. And what happens rhetorically and in front of the cameras and things like that, is usually geared towards one of two things. It's geared towards boxing in hardliners in the United States and Iran. And it's also geared towards appeasing domestic political constituencies to ensure that the maximum amount of political space is provided for the diplomatic process.

PETER LLOYD: So you're not remotely surprised to hear Israel saying today that these potential talks are a smokescreen for Iran's nuclear program?

REZA MARASHI: Not at all. And that's because the Israeli's view Iran as a strategic rival in the region and Israel has had a standing policy since 1948 to actively prevent any country in the Middle East from achieving military, technological or scientific parity with the Jewish state.

They perceive that as a threat. Iran is to date the closest to reaching that parity. And as a result of that, the Israeli's view them as a rival and they seek to diminish Iranian influence in the region. This is what makes it all the more important. Some point in time later on down the line, 'cause it's not going to happen next week or next month. Some point in time down the line, Iranians and Israeli's are going to have to sit down and talk and learn to get along again.

PETER LLOYD: That's Reza Marashi. He's the director of research at the National Iranian American Council.